Renowned astrophysicist Lawrence Krauss accused of sexual harassment

An investigation by Arizona State University (ASU) in Tempe concluded this week that high-profile astrophysicist and atheist Lawrence Krauss violated the university’s sexual harassment policy by grabbing a woman’s breast at a conference in Australia in late 2016.

“Responsive action is being taken to prevent any further recurrence of similar conduct,” ASU’s executive vice president and provost, Mark Searle, wrote in a 31 July letter to Melanie Thomson, a microbiologist based in Ocean Grove, Australia, who is an outspoken advocate for women in science. Thomson, who witnessed the breast-grabbing incident, received the investigative report from ASU’s Office of Equity and Inclusion (OEI) and shared it with Science.

In response to an email asking what specific actions the university is taking, an ASU spokesperson wrote: “Professor Lawrence Krauss is no longer director of Arizona State University’s Origins Project, a research unit at ASU. Krauss remains on administrative leave from the university. It is the policy of the university not to comment on ongoing personnel matters.”

ASU placed Krauss on paid administrative leave on 6 March, two weeks after BuzzFeed published an exposé describing multiple sexual harassment allegations against him. It barred him from campus during the probe. The university would not say whether it has reached conclusions on the credibility of the other allegations in that article.

The incident took place at a gala reception during the annual Australian Skeptics Convention in Melbourne in November 2016, when a woman asked to take a selfie with Krauss. (Krauss is a prominent member of the skeptics movement, which disputes the existence of a god or supernatural powers.) The investigators interviewed two eyewitnesses, and two other witnesses who did not see the incident but were at the reception and spoke with the unnamed woman the same evening, soon after it occurred. They described her variously as “frazzled and troubled” and “shocked,” according to the report. One eyewitness to the selfie said the woman “reacted with shock and physically moved away” from Krauss. A second said that the woman “body check[ed]” Krauss immediately after he grabbed her breast.

> World